Buoyed by fresh poll numbers showing her statistically tied for first place in the Iowa GOP presidential caucuses, Rep. Michele Bachmann said Sunday that her White House campaign is gaining traction.

“People have paid attention and recognize that I’m very serious about what I want to do,” the Minnesota Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.” She also attributed her polling numbers in Iowa to the fact that she was born there.

Bachmann plans to officially launch her campaign Monday in the Hawkeye State. The Des Moines Register poll showed her statistically tied for first place with Mitt Romney among likely participants of the state’s GOP caucuses.

“We’re very grateful for this poll,” she said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “But we know it’s still a long road ahead.”

Bachmann also responded to a Sunday Los Angeles Times report that the fiscal conservative has personally benefited from government funds and federal farm subsidies. A counseling clinic run by her husband has received nearly $30,000 from the government of her home state of Minnesota, and a family farm in Wisconsin received almost $260,000 in federal farm subsidies, according to the article.

“My husband and I have never gotten a penny from the farm,” Bachmann said on “Fox News Sunday.” She added that the farm is her father-in-law’s.

The state money for her husband’s clinic was for employee training and “certainly didn’t help” the clinic’s bottom line, she said.

She added that during her first term in Congress, she signed a pledge of no earmarks and has held to that.

She also fielded a question about some of her previous gaffes and was asked by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace whether she is a “flake.”

“Well, I think that would be insulting to say something like that, because I’m a serious person,” Bachmann said. She added that she’s a 55-year-old lawyer who has helped lead the fiscal-reform movement in Washington, worked in serious scholarship, raised five children and numerous foster children, and has been active in business as a job creator.

But, she added, “of course a person has to be careful with the statements they make.”